My Demon (21 page)

She stifled a sob and floored the pedal.

The minibus screeched forward. The wheels rammed him sooner than she expected. She hadn’t prepared herself, hadn’t braced for the hit. This was it. Her final act against him. The front wheels bumped over his body. The sound of crunching bones seemed to surround her. She screamed as the vehicle jolted about and something snapped loudly. Then the back wheels ran over him.

“No! I didn’t want to. I’m so sorry, Jeremy.” Alex turned the minibus off and jumped out before Clive could grab her. “I should never have … I’m so sorry, my love.” Tears coursed down her cheeks.

She sat down on the ground next to Jeremy. “I’m so sorry,” she repeated and reached over to stroke his hair. His face was miraculously unharmed, and his eyes stared up at her, an unblinking, unfocused sea-green. Below his neck, Jeremy’s body had been badly smashed. Blood pooled around him, mixing with the soil and staining her clothes. Alex didn’t care. Somehow the demon had made her do this. How could she have been so stupid? Here he lay, the proof she’d gone dangerously insane.

Alex ran her fingers gently over his face, letting his eyes burn into hers as the last puffs of blue dissipated. She began to sob. A knot grew in her stomach, a cold realization that Jeremy had gone forever.

“What did I do to you, Jeremy?” she sobbed. “I’m so sorry.” Alex touched her fingertips to his cooling lips. Footsteps came up behind her.

“Alex, you need to leave him here,” Clive said. He stopped behind her, hands on hips, and waited for a response.

“How can I leave him,” she replied. “He’s so defenseless.” Huge sobs escaped her. She started rocking back and forth, her chest heaving with huge shuddering breaths.

“He’s not defenseless, he’s dead,” said Clive. “Look, people will be coming soon. People coming to find out what happened.”

Clive waited for her to say something, anything. She didn’t care anymore. Let them take her. She did this, she killed Jeremy!

“Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Alex ignored Clive. She gently picked up Jeremy’s head and rested it in her lap. He shouldn’t have to lie on the bare soil. This wasn’t right. He deserved better. She wondered if there was a blanket in the minibus. Something to make him more comfortable. A drop of blood appeared from one nostril. She took a tissue from her pocket and dapped at his skin.

The demon rolled his eyes. “When they come, tell them some kid got in the minibus and ran Jeremy over.”

Clive tapped her on the shoulder. She didn’t pay him any attention. Alex was stroking Jeremy’s hair, making it tidy.

“They ran him over two times. Can you remember that Alex?”

Clive moved around to the other side of Jeremy and dipped down to try and make eye contact. Alex leaned further down over the body.

“Alex!” he shouted.

She finally glanced up. Why did he care? She wasn’t so important. This was important, what she’d done here, tonight. Her hands played restlessly with Jeremy’s hair.

“Alex, you and Jeremy got out of the minibus to talk. Someone snuck into the minibus and ran Jeremy over two times then the person ran off. You never saw his face because the headlights blinded you.” Clive dictated words for her to say. Why should she listen? Everything he did, everything he said, eventually led to something worse happening.

Alex’s face felt rubbery and unreal. Everything about her seemed to be like a dream world. Would she wake up soon? She focused on the demon. “Go away.” Her voice sounded so cold. Jeremy was cooling down. Soon he’d be cold. Because he was dead now. Alex locked eyes with the demon, waiting to see what he would do next. What could he do that was worse? She wished he’d get his claws out and slash her to pieces. Then she’d be dead, together, with Jeremy.

Clive blinked slowly, before turning away to stare across the car park. He fiddled with one of his horns as he appeared to think something through.

Finally he spoke up, “Okay, have it your way. But if you land yourself in jail it’s going to screw up a whole bunch of things, and my superior will eat me for lunch.”

“Fuck off,” Alex muttered.

“No, really, he loves a young demon roasted and salted and served with vegetables.”

Clive paced at the edge of her field of vision. She didn’t care what might or might not happen to him. Time her attention rested on Jeremy.

“Didn’t you hear me?” Alex caressed the side of Jeremy’s cheek where stubble grew. “I said: Fuck. Off.”

“Fine, have it your way,” said Clive, sounding hurt.

Alex looked up in time to find a puff of red smoke where Clive had been standing. As the mist he’d left behind began clearing, she noticed two figures running across the car park towards her.

A
n hour passed into infinity as Alex lay in a crumpled heap at Jeremy’s side. She felt as if she had wept rivers. When the paramedics arrived, they dragged her away screaming. Taken from Jeremy, she sat in the back of an ambulance, tears streaming uncontrollably down her face. A kindly man in a green paramedic’s uniform had wrapped her in a silver blanket before going to examine Jeremy. She guessed they only needed one glance to know he was beyond help. The radio kept screeching into life, startling Alex every time. The police were on their way. Would they guess? Would they know what she did?

“Alex,” asked the bearded paramedic. “How are you love, are you warm enough?” The night air was chilled by a wind that whipped the dry earth into little eddies. They skirted around the dead body of her boyfriend. The sharp sound of police sirens pierced her ears, and seconds later, a police car screamed up and parked beside the ambulance. Alex watched as the dust that clouded into the air settled like a shroud over Jeremy.

“Are you Alexandra Walker?” A man towered over her, notebook and pen in hand. He was joined by a female officer, who came and stood at her partner’s side. She smiled, but without warmth. She supposed they already thought she was guilty, and it was only a matter of minutes until they cuffed her and drove her away.

“Do you need some time? We’ve been told what happened,” said the WPC.

She left the other’s side to come and sit beside Alex. It took one touch, one hand on her shoulder for Alex to burst into fresh tears.

“Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.”

The officer put an arm around Alex, patting her occasionally as she cried herself into hiccupping, body shaking shudders. The male officer stood silently, waiting.

A second paramedic, a short thin lady, appeared with a box of tissues. Alex gratefully took the box and gave a nod of her head as thanks. The shuddering and uncontrollable emotion began to pass, and she wiped clean her face.

The male officer cleared his throat. “As I said earlier, I am Officer Blakely and this is Officer Merrill. We’ve come to question you…”

His voice droned on in the background. Alex stared past him to the body of her boyfriend. She assumed they couldn’t move him so someone else could take evidence or something. The thought of other people touching Jeremy, poking him, cutting him open made her eyes well up again. He hadn’t deserved to die.

“Alexandra, are you listening?” Officer Merrill asked.

Alex looked up, startled—she’d not heard a word. “I’m sorry.” She should be over there, next to him.

“You’re bound to be very upset, what with all this happening. But we need to know some basic information, and then Officer Blakely and I will drive you home.”

Home. Well at least that sounded positive, they mustn’t have her pinpointed for murder. Not yet, anyway.

“What do you need to know?” She dabbed at her face with a fresh tissue.

“Start at the beginning of the evening.”

“Um, well, okay. Jeremy and I came out here to talk. We like the openness. The solitude. We often drive out here,” Alex swallowed a sob. They did come here a lot. All the time. Why had she killed him in one of their favorite places? “We were over by the fire and the minibus engine turned over. Next thing we know, the minibus was speeding towards us. Jeremy pushed me out the way, and his minibus hit him. Not me,” she echoed the words around her head, praying she’d be convincing enough for them. “Um, the minibus did one of those handbrake turns or something, anyway, it span about and hit Jeremy again.”

“Where were you?” asked Officer Blakely.

“Um, I ran behind the oil drum. I may have fallen over … I don’t know it’s all so confusing, it happened so fast.” Sobs began to shake her body again, and Alex gulped in great breaths of air to try and regain control. Not only was she a murderer, twice over, she was also a gutless liar who couldn’t own up to her treachery. She didn’t deserve the compassion in these people’s eyes. She didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as them.

Alex looked at the officers in turn, hoping they could end the talk soon. Officer Merrill still had an arm wrapped around Alex’s shoulders. Her touch felt uncomfortable, and Alex resisted the urge to shake off the embrace.

A silence settled over the proceedings as notes were written, a silence that seemed to last hours but was probably only minutes. Alex waited to find out if she’d fooled them enough to get home.

“One more question for you,” Officer Blakely asked. “Did you see anyone running away?”

Alex shook her head. “I… I was beside Jeremy.”

The Officers nodded. The arm tightened around her, and Alex resisted trying to shake free.

“If you think of anything else, please call us on this number. I’ve written the incident number under my direct line.” He handed her a business card.

“Thank you,” she mumbled.

“Come on Alex, why don’t we get you home.” Officer Merrill helped Alex off the edge of the ambulance and directed her towards the police car. Alex staggered to the side and clutched at the WPC. She remembered Jeremy, how he’d stopped—for too long in the path of the minibus. Almost to the end, he thought she wouldn’t go through with it.

Time had passed. The police officer had supported her across the car par, and now she was sat in the back of the car. The two officers chatted in quiet voices, the engine droning as the car headed through town.

Poor Jeremy turning at the last moment played in her mind again. She’d screwed her eyes up and missed the last seconds of his life. Maybe his expression would have stopped her. Made her veer off to the side. Even if it meant crashing, she wished she had. He’d be alive. She swallowed as emotions tried to escape. If only Clive hadn’t shouted at her. Hadn’t shown her his other image. Hadn’t hit her.

Small excuses. If only she wasn’t so feeble. If only she wasn’t a coward.

She
killed
Jeremy. Alex shook her head, confused as the sound of the car’s engine revved for a moment just like the minibus had, and without realizing it, she braced for impact.

“It’s okay, love. You’re in shock,” the woman officer said.

The police car passed by the park. She looked up to find the sky overcast. No stars tonight. She needed one to break free. Just one. Make a wish to go back in time. Stop everything from happening.

“Do I have to go home?” she asked.

There was a moment of surprised silence before Officer Merrill said, “Why, where else would you go?” Officer Merrill turned slightly in her seat and glanced back at Alex.

“I want to walk around the park, get some air…” she lost any words she might have planned, battling with a fresh batch of tears instead. “Please?” The car bumped over something and she closed her eyes as a jolt of pain coursed through her. The minibus had bumped over his body. She held her stomach, the pain intensifying for a moment.

The officers glanced at each other. Officer Merrill turned back to Alex while the other officer pulled over the police car. “We can’t make you go home.” She glanced at her partner. “But this certainly isn’t the time to be alone. Times like this we need our friends and family most.”

“I’ll go home. I need to clear my head first.” She gave them a shaky smile.

“The officer pressed a lock release. “Door’s open for you.”

“Thank you,” Alex whispered, but didn’t trust herself to say any more. She half waved her hand as they drove off. They’d probably already be concentrating on the next thing on their list, she thought. Letting Lily know where she was. Telling Jeremy’s mum and dad. They’d be destroyed by this.